25 October

A second collection of thoughts rather than a cohesive train of thought.

Centralized hearing, part II: So you all heard about my complaints about centralized heating once already (if you haven’t, just scroll down and come back), but wait, there’s more! I have never once really fully understood the rationale and thought put into how the water is run around here, but one of my favorite times is when I have only hot water, no cold water. Let me tell you, life gets exciting then, I gotta be like the flash doing everything that includes water, whether it is washing dishes, brushing my teeth, washing my hands or dare to take a shower. The water heats up fast to a point where it is not wise to put your hands under it lest you get burned. Now I know I could let the water sit and do pretty much all of those tasks, but that does require planning ahead and I don’t typically know when the water is going to be on or off. I do get only cold water sometimes too, like this morning when I decided to forgo the shower and just wash my hair. I’ll let you know, I may not smell the best, but I still look darn good. Hair looked clean and I shaved. Speaking of which, I think I have hot water now, maybe I should take a shower… eh, then again, maybe I’ll just take my luck in the morning again, didn’t pay out so well today, but who do I have to impress around here?

And in the way of odd jobs, how about translating a physics text. For those of you who want to explain a bit more about Lenz’s law, I’d appreciate it, I have a text here including an experiment and I think if I had the opportunity to actually try it out, I’d probably get it, but it isn’t anything I have really studied and now I get to attempt to put it into Ukrainian, wow, I get be confused in two languages, welcome to my life. Of course the director, no less, wants it tomorrow, so any explanation will be too late for any translation, but it will maybe allow me to at least understand it a bit. At least I have the next week to look forward to where there will be no school, and my responsibility is only making sure a Halloween party goes off. Of course, just to make things interesting I am hoping to have other volunteers here, which adds more details to figure out, but may make things more interesting for the kids as well. Also planning a trip to Poland, should be a good time and I’m looking forward to getting out of the country, seeing something new, even if it may not be all that different. We’ll see.

28 October
Sometimes I think we (as Americans) just need to do things that will throw off and maybe confuse the locals. Case in point, this morning I woke up and needed to go to the bazaar, it is only open twice a week and I didn’t feel like getting dressed for the day before I took a shower. It hasn’t been that cold so I put on a pair of shorts, shirt and my jacket and headed out the door. It wasn’t that cold, but Ukrainians seem to have been conditioned to bundle up as much as possible, for whatever reason (my apartment is almost too hot). There is also the superstition you can never have to windows open or a window and a door open at the same time. You will catch cold, and die, pretty much. The worse place for this rule is on packed marshrutkas (mini-buses) when it is boiling inside but people complain about any cracked window. But anyway, I got plenty of strange looks from people I don’t know, a couple of comments from people I know and one guy congratulating me on defying winter (I think). It is pretty obvious to me, and most other people, that I will never fit in completely so why not occasionally have some fun with it. Part of the Peace Corps experience is to bring a little of America here as well and expose them to different experiences and ideas. I can interpret that to mean wearing shorts in weather that may not be the most conducive for it. Although I will insist it wasn’t that bad. Helped me wake up. All in all, I’m not too worried about catching a cold from a cold day or a draft, germs scare me more so I will keep washing my hands, cooking my food the best I can and trying to get rest the best I can. Medical staff says we will tend to get sick here a bit more than usual anyway because of the extra stress exerted on us and a new environment. So, bring it on (those are some infamous last words now…).
So until next time, keep up with the comments and emails, they are always helpful and encouraging.